Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/470545
52 BizEd MARCH | APRIL 2015 What do you think your most important accomplishments have been at AACSB? First, I'm most proud of the quality of the people we've assembled here to further AACSB's mission. That's what makes me feel best about turning the or- ganization over to a new person. Second, I'm pleased with the way we've been ac- cepted globally. Third, I'm pleased that each time we've opened a new office—in Tampa, Singapore, and now Amster- dam—we've chosen the right location. These achievements are all sustainable for the organization. What was your biggest challenge? Changing staff culture to help the staff develop a more global mindset. Chang- ing culture is the hardest thing to do, because it is embedded in long-stand- ing practices. My other greatest challenge was managing the relocation from St. Louis to Tampa. Many of the St. Louis staff members couldn't make the move to Tampa, and leaving people behind was the hardest part of the relocation. Why did you believe it was so critical for the association to globalize? In recent years, management education has been growing much more quickly internationally than in the U.S. While the most experienced business schools were located in the West, student growth was in Asia and Africa and the Middle East. We needed to recognize and address that. You oversaw two major overhauls of the accreditation standards. Why was it important to revise the standards? What still remains to be done? We revised the standards in 2013 to be more applicable to a diverse set of schools worldwide, but they still could be improved. The biggest deterrent to globalization remains our narrow model of faculty definitions. In the long run, we can't continue to legislate these inputs of quality. We're on much more valid ground when we measure the outcomes of degree programs. I also think we eventually will need to generate standards for technology-deliv- ered programs. Technology is emerging as such a powerful delivery mechanism that we ought to be the leader in saying when it's good and when it's reliable. We're still claiming online courses are homogeneous with face-to-face educa- tion. It's not true. What did the new standards get right? They embrace executive education, which is important for the future of management education. Executive edu- cation represents a very high percentage of revenue in Europe and Asia, and it's growing in the U.S. Degree programs are getting shorter, but we're expecting more capacity from our graduates. Nondegree executive education programs can fill a lot of holes left by MBA programs that are too short, too generic, or too specialized. The new standards also broaden some of the curriculum requirements. Now, we want schools not only to help their students develop a strong sense of ethics, but also to make sure students understand social responsibility and sustainability—of the planet, of the orga- nization, and of society. Someone could be highly ethical without being socially responsible or committed to having a positive effect on society. In the end, the themes of innovation, engagement, and impact are the icing on the cake. These are three concise messages that serve as capstones to the new standards. You've served on the boards of several organizations, including The PhD Project and the Global Foundation for Manage- ment Education (GFME), a joint venture of AACSB and the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). How was that service beneficial to AACSB and the industry? The PhD Project is an important organization in the U.S. because we're facing a big change in demographics. By 2050, the current minority will be the majority. We need to produce more mi- nority professors, particularly African Americans and Hispanics, because we want minority students to come to our traditional schools. Right now, far too many of these students go to for-profit educational providers. Through GFME, both AACSB and EFMD tried to determine how many business schools there are in the world. So far we've found close to 16,000. I think GFME has benefited manage- ment education because it reinforced something we already knew—that the number of business schools grows as economies grow. The numbers have proved that out. What changes do you expect to see in management education in the future? Most of the growth in management education is coming out of emerging economies in parts of the world, from Africa to Latin America. Yet students in these nations don't always have access to education, and many business schools there aren't yet as strong as those in developed nations. Institutions in developed nations can help schools in emerging economies develop their educational prowess, and in the process make their own brands more visible. " Technology is emerging as such a powerful delivery mechanism that we ought to be the leader in saying when it's good and when it's reliable."—JOHN FERNANDES, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF AACSB INTERNATIONAL